You were named to handle a Georgia estate. Here is what you can do, in order.

The word depends on the will. If there is a will and it names you, you are the executor. The court gives you letters testamentary. If there is no will, or the will names nobody who can serve, the court picks someone. That person is the administrator, and the court gives them letters of administration. The court calls both a personal representative. The job is the same either way: gather what the person owned, pay what they owed, and hand out what is left.

Almost anyone can serve. You must be 18 or older. You do not have to live in Georgia, and you do not have to be a citizen. A felony can block you unless your rights were restored.

If there is no will, Georgia law says who gets first pick to serve. The surviving spouse comes first, then the people who inherit. If the family agrees on one person, the court will usually name them.

The gap between the death and the court's letters is where most mistakes happen. You feel like the person in charge. On paper, nobody is yet.

You can protect the house. You cannot sell it or sign for it, and you cannot spend the estate's money.

You ask the court for letters with a petition. With a will, most families file to prove the will in solemn form. The court's form is GPCSF 5. Without a will, you file for letters of administration, form GPCSF 3. The forms are free on the state probate judges' site, and the court clerk will tell you which one fits.

Every heir gets notice. If each one signs a paper saying they got it and have no objection, the court can act fast. If someone cannot be found or will not sign, the court runs a notice in the county's legal paper and waits. That wait is where weeks turn into months.

Before letters issue, you swear an oath. A probate judge or clerk gives it. A notary cannot. If you live in another state, the court can send a form, GPCSF 53, so a court where you live can give you the oath.

Bond is a promise, backed by money, that you will do the job right. With a will that waives bond, there is none. Without a will, Georgia law calls for a bond unless every heir signs to waive it. If it is required, you buy it from a surety company, and the price depends on the size of the estate.

How long it takes depends on the signatures. When every heir signs, letters can issue in a few weeks. When notice has to run, plan on two to three months. Fulton County makes you e-file a new estate and mail the originals within ten days.

Georgia makes you tell the people the estate owes. Within 60 days of getting letters, you publish a notice in the county's legal paper. It runs once a week for four weeks. Anyone owed money then has three months from the last notice to make a claim.

Do not hand money or property to the heirs before that window closes. If a claim comes in after you have paid everyone out, the shortfall can land on you.

Two creditors move faster than the rest. If your parent got Medicaid for nursing-home or long-term care, the State of Georgia files a claim in the estate for what it paid. It waives the first $25,000, and you must tell the Department of Community Health in writing before you hand anything out. If there was a reverse mortgage, the whole loan came due at the death, and the servicer gives the family roughly six months, with extensions, to sell or pay it off.

A surviving spouse or a minor child has a special claim called year's support. The court can set aside money, or even the house, for them, ahead of most creditors. The request must be filed within two years of the death. It can be the simplest path when the spouse wants to keep the home.

Whether you can sell on your own depends on one line in the will. Many wills give the executor the power to sell without asking the court. If yours does, you can list the house or sell it direct once you hold letters. You do not need a hearing or a petition.

If the will is silent, or there is no will, you ask the court for leave to sell. The form is GPCSF 13. It names the house, the price, the terms and every heir. Each heir gets notice and a chance to object. With no objection, the court signs an order, often within 30 to 90 days. There is a shortcut. When the estate opens, every heir can sign to give the administrator the power to sell. That box is on the petition, and it saves a second trip to the court.

At closing, you sign as the estate, with an executor's deed or an administrator's deed. The closing attorney will ask for a certified copy of your letters, and for the court order if one was needed. Back taxes and any loan get paid from the sale price. The rest goes into the estate's bank account and is paid out from there.

If the family keeps the house instead, you do not sell it. You sign a deed of assent that moves it to the heirs named in the will or by law.

Georgia pays the person who does this work. Unless the will sets a different fee, you may take 2.5 percent of the money that comes into the estate and 2.5 percent of what goes out. On a house that sells, that is real money. You may also be paid back for what you spend on the estate, like the court fees and a trip to Georgia, if you keep the receipts.

In return, you keep an account. Every dollar in and out, with a receipt. Keep the estate's money in its own bank account, never mixed with yours. The bank will want your letters and a tax number for the estate, which you get free from the IRS online in a few minutes. Georgia also asks for three filings after letters issue: an inventory of what the estate holds within six months (O.C.G.A. 53-7-30), a return every year while the estate is open (O.C.G.A. 53-7-67), and a petition for discharge when you are done. The will or the heirs can excuse the inventory and the returns, and any heir can ask the court to make you show the books.

We work with Georgia families when the house is the hard part of the estate. Give us the address and we pull what the county shows: who is on the deed, what is owed in taxes, and whether a sale date is set. We go through the choices above with you, with a number next to each one. When the cost of opening the estate is what is stopping a family, we help pay it when the family picks an option that involves us. And when the choice is to sell during the estate, we can be the buyer and close when the court's papers are ready.